Falcon_Phreak wrote:Okay, I was think more along the lines of a barnes and noble system, ie a little white tag that be stuck on something instead of a rather bulky box.

I'm not sure about Barnes and Noble, but usually those things are magnetic and meant to set off an alarm if you walk out of the store without being a good patron and paying xD. I don't think they have any range or capacity to transmit data on their own.

It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votesinsomaniacal.blog.com

Falcon_Phreak wrote:okay is there any way to get a tag that would transmit data?

All the tags transmit data. There are two main categories: passive and active. Passive doesn't need power or any advance stuff though a charge must be induced and the range is limited.(Think about the bus pass or access cards) The other has more range, though limited by the battery/cell that could die when you need it most.

A solid understanding of electronics, hardware and software is going to be needed. The components may be fairly simple, but their implementation is anything but (if you have no knowledge to begin with). Pick up a book by Forrest M. Mims on basic electronics. His books are straight-forward and read more like notes than a technical manual. There are drawings and plain-English explanations of everything from electron flow to building logic gates.